In Say Nothing, the 2019 bestselling book about The Troubles, the author mentions that, facing discrimination, many Catholics in Northern Ireland emigrated to America, England, and Australia. Would they not have moved south to the Republic of Ireland as well?

That’s really not the whole story. In the 1960s unemployment in Northern Ireland was nearly double that of the UK. Discrimination meant Protestants were favoured for jobs and more Catholics migrated. It’s estimated that in the 1960s, roughly 11 out of every 1000 Catholics migrated, while roughly 5 out of every 1000 Protestants migrated. While some did move south to the Republic of Ireland, there was high unemployment there too, and the Republic of Ireland was seeing a huge outflow of its population as well, roughly twice that of Northern Ireland. With less employment opportunities, it was more likely that people would migrate to countries they felt might offer better opportunities. In the 1970s, Northern Ireland saw around 110,000 people migrate, which reflects the violence of the decade, and the rate of migration was roughly even between the two communities, but again they chose countries with better opportunities than those offered by the Republic of Ireland.

However, in the 1980s and early 1990s it was Protestants who were more likely to migrate. This was mainly university students who did not return after their studies, creating a “brain drain”, but also the low skilled.

Over all the decades discussed, the main destination for migrants from Northern Ireland was to the UK, with a England being slightly more favoured than Scotland.

If you want to know more then the go to text is Leaving the North by Johanne Devlin Trew